


Kids Will be Kids

by CrystalQueer



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Babysitting, Cute Kids, Historical Inaccuracy, Not Canon Compliant, just in case
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-02-28 22:21:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13281042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalQueer/pseuds/CrystalQueer
Summary: It's Sunday morning, the one day the performers have off, and Anne was at the Circus practicing when her boss shows up with his two daughters. He asks if she can watch them for a few minutes while he goes to talk to Philip and she agrees, but a few minutes turns into a few hours, and all Anne wanted was to practice her act.





	Kids Will be Kids

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MaddieAltman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieAltman/gifts).



> Written as a birthday gift for my awesome friend Maddie!! I was watching The Greatest Showman with her and a friend of ours when someone said something about wondering how Anne was with the kids, I mentioned I'd write a fic about it and Maddie reacted enthusiastically so,, I wrote it as a birthday present for her.
> 
> This is, definitely going up early so, happy early birthday!!!
> 
> If you like this, you can check me out on tumblr @appleciderwriting !

It was Sunday morning and the only day the circus performers had off, but Anne was still at the building practicing for tomorrow's shows. She knew Phillip was in the back running numbers and there were probably other performers around but, she was the only one in the ring. Her brother, W.D., had said he'd meet her there later to practice with her but she didn't know where he was currently.

Aside from the sound of the ropes and the weights and her own breathing, the stage was quiet and Anne was focused and all was well, until a noise broke through the silence.. it sounded like giggling?

She dropped a short distance to the ground and stood, dusting the sawdust off herself just as P. T. Barnum and his two daughters- Caroline and Helen -came into view.

"Mr. Barnum!" Anne said. "Isn't it your day off?"

Barnum arched his eyebrows. "I could ask you the same thing," he replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Practicing, and you?" she tilted her head slightly and watched as Helen, Barnum's younger daughter, wandered off. Caroline stayed by him.

"I'm here to see Mr. Carlyle, if he's here. Do you know if he's here?" Barnum put a hand on Caroline's shoulder and glanced towards Helen as she climbed over the ring and went to sit in the stands. Anne nodded. "He's in the back, I think."

Barnum grinned. "Great! Would you mind watching these two while I go to talk to him?" he asked.

Now, Anne had been the youngest of her family and never really knew anyone with kids, so she didn't have much experience with them. Usually when Barnum needed help watching the girls he'd ask Lettie, because she loved the girls and the girls loved her, but Lettie wasn't here. Anne surprised herself by saying, "yes."

"Great!" Barnum said again. "Helen, come here." he waited until Helen had returned before facing the two and leaning down to be eye level with them. “Now, you two be good for Miss Wheeler, okay? I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

“Okay daddy!” both girls chimed, Anne smiled slightly as Barnum stood up, the girls were quite cute. He nodded to her and headed to the back, he hadn’t even gone behind the curtain before both girls turned to her, and suddenly she felt very.. awkward. Sure, she had interacted with the kids before, but never alone, other performers had been around. She pursed her lips. “Mind if I finish practicing?” she asked, tilting her head slightly. The girls stared at her for a moment.

“Nope!” said Caroline, the older one who had dark hair and looked more like her father.

“Go ahead!” said Helen, the younger one who looked more like her mother, was already tugging her sister off to the stands to watch. “If you need anything uh, let me know!” Anne called after them. One of the girls called back, “okay!” She had to admit that now that she had an audience, she moved with more of a flourish to show off her skills. But she didn’t have anyone spotting for her, so she was careful and didn’t do too much- it would be a shame if she fell and got hurt in front of the cute kids who watched her with wonder.  
Anne practiced what she could without W.D., and more than Barnum’s few minutes flew by. Eventually, tired, Anne lightly dropped to the ground and ran a hand through her tangled hair. The girls were still watching her and she had almost forgotten they were there, but she went to sit with them.

“You looked great!” exclaimed Caroline, and Anne smiled at her, taking a seat on the edge of the ring.

“Where’s daddy?” asked Helen, she shrugged in response. She was as clueless as the child asking the question. “Where is Mr. Barnum..?” she mused softly.

There was a brief silence, filled only by the sound of the two kids whispering to each other, and Anne felt awkward again. She was a trapeze artist, not a nanny, she didn’t know how kids worked or what they liked or anything; what was she supposed to do? “Uh, Caroline,” she said and Caroline turned to look at her. “you do ballet, right? How’s that going for you?” Anne was pretty sure she had heard Lettie ask Caroline about ballet at some point, she hoped she had asked the right kid. Judging from the way Caroline lit up and grinned, she was pretty sure she had.

“Great! We’re practicing for a recital right now and..” Caroline went on, climbing down from the stands to stand on the ground and demonstrate some of the moves she was learning, occasionally saying stuff like “I can’t do it properly without my shoes” when she stumbled.

“Trapezing seems a lot like ballet, just in the air.” Helen piped up, Anne turned to look at her. “I guess you’re right.” she replied. And then, an idea hit her.

“Would you girls like to play on the ropes?” she asked, and they both looked at her curiously. “I can teach you some beginner stuff if you’d like.” it was a risky move, if either of them got hurt in any way Barnum would surely fire her, but both she and the girls were bored and it would be fun.

“Yes!” exclaimed Helen, and Caroline nodded enthusiastically, smiling. 

Anne laid out the ground rules, no doing anything by yourself, and no trying anything extreme. It was simple and after that she was teaching them one at a time how to hold the rope and to trust it; they were young and didn’t have the upper body strength but that’s why Anne was there, to help hold them on. She felt awkward instructing the girls, acting like the teacher she never had, but she got used to it soon enough and both kids were having a blast.

W.D. came in as Anne and Caroline were carefully pushing Helen back and forth between them, there was a short space where Helen was by herself before being caught, but she was laughing and clinging to the rope.

“Anne!” he called across the ring, concern written clear across his face.Anne glanced at him before catching Helen. “Wait here, okay?” she said to both of them as she helped her down. Both girls nodded and as she walked away she heard them giggling and one say, “she’s in troooouble~!” in a sing-song tone.

“Yeah?” Anne said, stopping in front of W.D. He was wearing casual clothes and she wondered where he had been, but now wasn’t exactly the time to ask.

“What are you doing with Barnum’s kids? And where’s Barnum?” he asked. Anne glanced over her shoulder at the girls to make sure they weren’t doing anything before answering. 

“Hell if I know,” she said. “He came in earlier and said he wanted to talk to Mr. Carlyle and asked if I could watch the girls for a few minutes and hasn’t come back since.”

“We were bored,” she continued. “so I decided, why not teach them some basic stuff?”

W.D. frowned. “Mr. Barnum will surely fire you, both of us, really, if anything happens to those girls.”

“They're fine!” Anne replied. “They’re having a great time.” she looked over her shoulder again, but the girls were still watching them and talking. “It’s fine, W.D., don’t worry,” she said, resting a hand on his arm. “now, wanna help me?”

A look of uncertainty passed across W.D.’s face, he was always cautious, more cautious than she was, but he also had a hard time disagreeing with her. “Okay.” he said finally. Anne grinned and turned around, he followed.

Barnum returned later, but they didn’t notice right away; with W.D. spotting for her, Anne had gone up in the air on a ring, and with her was Caroline. They weren’t very high and she had a good hold on the kid, and it was when they were suspended that Anne noticed Barnum watching. She knew he knew she noticed because he grinned and opened his arms. “Anne, W.D.!” he said, Helen squealed and ran over to hug him as Anne and Caroline lowered down, as soon as Caroline was on the ground she too ran over to her father and both girls babbled excitedly about what they did that afternoon.

“Mr. Barnum I’m sorry, it’s just that you were gone a lot longer than you said you would be and we were bored so I said I’d teach them some stuff and then W.D. showed up and agreed to help and I-” apologies rolled off her tongue and she was certain she’d get yelled at or something, but Barnum just kept grinning.

“I’m the one who should be sorry,” he said. Anne felt W.D. come stand behind her and she relaxed a little bit. “Carlyle and I had more talk about than I thought, he suggested lunch and I agreed; forgetting about you and the girls.” he continued. “I really didn’t mean to be away that long.”

“I hope his lunch was good,” W.D. muttered to her and she bit back a laugh.

“Well, uh, we had fun, I think.” Anne glanced at the girls who both nodded happily

“It was great! Miss Wheeler was just teaching us how to hold onto the ropes and stuff and then Mr. Wheeler showed up and Miss Wheeler started carrying us!!” Helen exclaimed, grinning broadly. Barnum chuckled. “I’m glad you had fun. You’ll have quite the story to tell your mother, too.”

“Speaking of Charity, we should probably get going. Thank you so much for looking after them, Miss Wheeler.” Barnum said.

“Anne,” she corrected. “And, it was no problem. I had fun too.”

“And thank you, Mr. Wheeler.” Barnum added. W.D. nodded.

“Girls, what do you say?” Barnum prompted, looking down at his daughters.

“Thank you Miss Wheeler!” both girls said. Anne smiled.

“You two can call me Anne, too. Miss Wheeler’s too formal.” she said.

“Thank you, Miss Anne!!” the girls repeated.

“Like I said, it was no problem. Have a good afternoon now.”

“You too,” called Barnum as he herded his girls to the door. When they were gone Anne turned to her brother.

“Want to finally rehearse?” she asked despite being quite tired after spending all afternoon with the children. He nodded and they headed off to the rigs to practice their set for tomorrow’s show.


End file.
